Conventionally, six-sided corrogated paperboard containers have been used to transport and store flexible cordlike material. The containers have generally included a centrally disposed internal core structure about which the flexible cordlike material may be wrapped inside the container. Most generally, four sidewalls of the container are designed for radial disposition about the periphery of the wrapped cordlike material. These four sides are formed by two sets of parallel panel sections of corrogated paperboard material joined together in mutually perpendicular relationship at their ends to form an endless enclosure having front and rear openings. The front and rear sides of the container are each formed by four panels hingedly secured to the four peripheral sidewalls. Four of the panels fold into the rear opening to form the rear wall, and the two remaining pairs of panels fold into the front opening to form the front wall.
In a typical prior art six-sided container for transporting and storing flexible cordlike material, the panels extending from opposite sidewalls are folded together with one opposing pair of panels forming an internal set and the other opposing set forming an external set. Each of the opposing internal flaps for the rear side are of generally rectangular configuration and occupy approximately one-half the rear opening area when disposed in perpendicular relationship to the four peripheral sidewalls. Each internal rear flap also has a slotted tab centrally disposed on the interior side of the flap panel opposite the fold line. The slotted tabs extend beyond the interior side of the flap panels, and unless folded out of the plane of the flap panel, overlap the area occupied by the opposing panel. The slotted tabs are each hingedly secured to the internal flap panel along a fold line parallel to the fold line connecting the internal flap panel with the peripheral side panel. With the opposing internal set of flap panels positioned perpendicular to the peripheral side panels, the tabs are bent inwardly 90 degrees with respect to the internal flap panels for disposition in parallel relationship to the peripheral side panels. The external flap panels of the rear side are then folded along fold lines perpendicular to the internal flap panel fold lines connecting the external flap panels to the remaining two peripheral side panels. The external flap panels are positioned in overlying relationship to the internal flap panels and complete closure of the rear openings.
The flap panels for the front opening are very similar to the rear flap panels except that the tabs extending from the internal flap panels do not have a slot and the fold lines for the internal and external flap panels are perpendicular to the corresponding internal and external flap panels on the rear opening. When the front internal flap panels are positioned in perpendicular relationship to the peripheral side panels and the tabs are folded along their fold lines to a position parallel with the peripheral side panels, the tabs of the front flap panels extend through the slots of the tabs in the rear flap panels. The two tabs from the front flap panels are then in criss-cross relationship with the tabs from the rear flap panels. The resulting structure is centrally disposed in the box enclosure and used as a core for wrapping cordlike material.
The requirement for tabs extending beyond the sides of the flap panels in these prior art containers has resulted in paperboard waste, increased cost and inflexibility of use. Most paperboard containers are formed from planar blanks of square or rectangular configuration. The paperboard needed for a blank having a tab panel is necessarily larger than that needed for a similar container without the tabs. This increased size requirement for the paperboard blank increases the cost of the resulting container. Furthermore, much more of the paperboard blank is cut away and wasted. Additionally, stock box blanks, made for other purposes not requiring the tabs, cannot be used for containers of the type discussed above.
Additionally, when the prior art boxes are loaded with material, the front panels are folded to an open position exposing the front opening and removing the front tabs. Thus, the winding core about which the cordlike material is then wound consists of only the two slotted tabs in face to fact abutting relationship.